Polygonal tubular container with reclosable end



NOV. 15, 1966 J. c, BARNHARDT, 5 ET AL 3,285,496

POLYGONAL TUBULAR CONTAINER WITH RECLOSABLE END Filed Jan. 13, 1965 INVENTORS JACOB C. BARNHARM, 5E. and WILLlAM T. SHEA BYW+M ATTORNEY E United States Patent 3,285,496 POLYGONAL TUBULAR CONTAINER WITH RECLOSABLE END Jacob C. Earnhardt, Sn, and William T. Shea, Charlotte, N.C., assignors to Barnhardt Manufacturing Co., Charlotte, N.C., a corporation of North Carolina Filed Jan. 13, 1965, Ser. No. 425,194 1 Claim. (Cl. 22951) This invention pertains to a polygonal tubular container with a reclosable end, and more particularly to such a container useful for both shipping a bulk material and storing material during the period of time required for use.

Bulk materials, and particularly bulk materials of relatively light weight per cubic foot such as pharmaceutical coils of a textile material sliver, are often shipped in containers formed from paper board or similar materials. Such containers are formed as polygonal tubes by bending a sheet of foldable material along parallel longitudinal lines to define main body panels and fixing the edges of the sheet together, or formed by winding a sheet of material to form a circular cylindrical body. In use, the containers have a suitable closure means fixed to one end, and a removable lid or closure member covering the other end. With some materials, it is only necessary that the container be used while the bulk material is transported from the location where the container is packed to the location where the material is to be used and, once opened, the container is not reused. With other materials, such as a pharmaceutical coil, the bulk material is not entirely consumed at once, and it is frequently desirable to store the material in the shipping container for the period of time necessary to consume it.

Paper containers previously used for bulk materials have comonly used a lid or removable closure member basically similar to the simple and quite widely known hat box lid. The distinctive feature of such a lid is that it telescopically engages the outside of the body portion of the container, fitting over the open end. Examples of such lids or closure members are those shown in Ooile Patent 2,433,683; Zucker et al. Patent 2,780,402 and Barnes Patent 3,018,939. While lids of this type are reclosable, as is widely known, bulk material containers which must be transported and then be used for storage of the bulk material have been found to suffer from deficiencies when such a hat box type lid is used. Specifically, the portions of the lid and body which must be engaged in telescopic relation to permit reclosing the container are exposed at the end of the container and subject to damage should the container receive a blow or be dropped. This is true whether the damage occurs during shipment while the lid and container body are asssembled, or during storage use when the lid and container body are separated. Further, a blow to the container and lid while assembled for shipment may easily cause the exposed lid to be accidentally separated from the container, laying the bulk material open to contamination which would make it unsuitable for use.

Once a container and hat box type lid are separated, to obtain access to the bulk material, the hat box type lid is not well adapted for use as a reclosable lid, even beyond the probability of damaging either the lid or body so that they will not telescope together. The hat box type lid must be carefully positioned over the end of the container in order to slide over the container body and, unless adequate care is used, the lid will not close the container opening so as to prevent contamination of the bulk material which would render it unsuitable for use.

This invention corrects the deficiencies of the hat box type lid known and used in the prior art by providing a reclosea'ble end for a polygonal tubular container which is telescopically received within the container body and re- "ice cessed within the body so as to not be exposed to possible damage.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved reclosable end for a container which is not damaged beyond reclosable use by blows to the end of the assemblied container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a reclosable end for a tubular container which is easily inserted int-o the end of the container for improved sea-ling of the container when reclosed.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection with the acompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of an assembled container and reclosable end constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the container body and closure member before assembly into the assembled container of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the container body and end closure after separation of the closure from the body to gain access to the bulk material shipped in the container;

FIGURE 4 is a part sectional view of a portion of the container body, taken along the line 44 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view through a portion of the container body taken along the line 5--5 in FIGURE 1.

Briefly, the container of this invention has a polygonal tubular body formed by a number of foldably connected main panels and a reclosable end structure received telescopically within the body with a lid portion recessed from the end of the body and a circumferential lip connected to the body. In an assembled container, the circumferential lip is secured to the body adjacent the end of the body, and means are provided for separating the end struc ture from the container body along a circumferential line encircling the lip medially between the end of the body and the recessed lid portion. Once the end structure is separated to gain access to the bulk material shipped in a container, it may be reclosed by again inserting the lid portion telescopically within the body. In both the assembled container and the opened container, the telescoping surfaces are protected against damage which would destroy the telescopic relationship by being spaced from the area subject to damage.

As shown in FIGURES l5, the container of this invention has a polygonal tubular body formed by creasing a sheet of foldable material along a number of fold lines 10 to form main panels 11 and securing the unfolded edges of the two main panels adjacent the sides of the sheet to hold the main panels 11 in foldably connected tubular relation. A suitable means for securing the panels is an adhesive tape 12, although other means may be chosen by those skilled in container design. As shown in FIGURE 2, the body of the container has a number of flaps 13 at its upper extremity, as oriented in FIGURE 2, with each flap formed integrally with a main panel 11 as an extension of the panel which is substantially coextensive in width with the panel. As will be described, these body flaps 13 cooperate with a top closure member in assembling the container for shipment. The container body also has a tear strip 14 secured to the inside surface of the main panels 11 along a line circumferential of the container body and spaced downwardly from the upper extremity of the body. As shown in FIGURE 4, one end 15 of the tear strip 14 extends through the joint formed by the abutted edge surfaces of the sheet from which the body is folded, and projects outside the container body to provide a manually engageable tab.

The container top closure member has a planar lid portion 16 which carries a number of flaps 17 equal to I the number of main panels 11 of the container body. The lid flaps 17 are substantially'equal in width to the body flaps 13, and are folded upwardly on fold lines 20 which describe a polygonal boundary for the lid portion 16 of the top closure member having the same form as the polygonal form of the body of the container. When folded upwardly, the flaps 17 together form a circumferential lip for the closure member. As best illustrated in FIG- URE 5, the top closure member is telescopically received within the container body, with the planar portion 16 recessed from the extremity of the container body. With the top closure member having the same form as the polygonal form of the body of the container. When folded wardly along fold lines 22 to engage the lid flaps 17'. The lid flaps, body flaps, and body are then secured together by any suitable means, such as an adhesive or a staple 23, to complete assembly of the closure member and body of the container. In the assembled relation, the tear strip 14 is positioned medially between the extremity of the container body and the inserted position of the lid portion 16 of the top closure member and is of less width than the height of the lid flaps 17. The lower end of the container may be closed by any suitable means, not shown, known to persons working in the art of containers manufactured from foldab'le sheet materials.

In the container of this invention, as thus assembled for shipment, the top closure member is fixed to the container body to form a unitary structure which cannot be accidently separated by a blow to the container. Further, the telescoping portions of the closure member and body are spaced from the end of the body, where damage from blows to the container or dropping the container will occur, and are for this reason markedly less subject to damage which otherwise would prevent the end from being reclosable.

In order to gain access to material shipped in the assembled container, such as pharmaceutical coil C, the tab 15 of the tear strip 14 is manually grasped and the tear strip 14 manually removed. Such removal of the tear strip 14 severs the body of the container along a circumferential line, being the line on which the tear strip 14 was positioned. The top closure member may then be removed, as shown in FIGURE 3, to gain ac cess to materials within the container.

On the severance of the body of the container by the removal of the tear strip 14-, a portion of the main panels 11 adjacent the extremity of the container 'body is severed from the remainder of the main panels while the telescopic relation of the top closure member and the remainder of the main panels is retained. It is the retention of this telescopic relationship which permits reclosure of the container by reinsertion of the top closure member into the body of the container. On such reinsertion or reclosure, the severed portions of the main panels 11 engage the newly fonmed upper extremity of the container body to prevent full entrance of the closure into the body, or to provide a stop. I

With the container of this invention, the planar portion of the top closure member is recessed inwardly from the extremity of the assembled container during shipment, and should any damage to the closure member occur, that damage will be confined to the upper extremity of the member. Any such damage will not affect the telescopic relation of the closure member within the body of the container, upon which the reclosable nature of the closure member relies, or cause accidental removal of the closure member so long as the stop panels and main panels have not been severed by removal of the tear strip.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claim.

We claim:

In combination with a polygonal tubular container having a body free of any intemal protruding obstructions and formed by a series of interconnecting planar body panels, a reclosable structure for one end of the body comprising:

a correspondingly polygonal'closure member telescopically positioned within said body and comprising a lid portion recessed inwardly from said one end of said body and lid flaps carried by said lid portion and corresponding in number and being in engagement with said body panels and extending outwardly from said lid portion and terminating adjacent said one end of said body,

said body panels having inturned body flaps each engaging a lid flap and sandwiching the lid flaps between the body flaps and the body panels,

means connecting the lid flaps to the body flaps and body panels, and

tear strip means for separating said closure member from the body and to permit telescopic replacement of the closure member within the body without any exposed gap in the body, said tear strip means comprising .a strip of pliable material of less width than the height of the lid flaps and encircling all the lid flaps medially thereof and being sandwiched between the lip flaps and the body panels and having a manually en'gageable tab projecting through and outside the body whereby upon applying sufiicient outward pulling force to the tab the surrounding body is ruptured to separate the closure member from the body to permit access to the interior of the container and the closure member may thereafter be replaced on the body in deeper telescopic relation thereto to compensate for any reduced height of the body caused by the rupture thereof by the tear strip and thus present a reclosable container devoid of the presence of a gap in the body.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,152,400 3/ 1939 Da Rold 22951 2,330,840 10/ 1943 ONeil et al 2295.5 2,433,683 12/1945 Coyle 220-53 2,638,820 5/1953 Barnes. 3,018,939 1/196'2 Barnes 22944 3,115,292 12/ 1963 Repking 22923 X FOREIGN PATENTS 603,044 8/ 1960 Canada.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

D. T. MOORHEAD, Assistant Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,285,496 November 15, 1966 Jacob C. Earnhardt, Sr et a1 It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 1, line 35, for "comonly" read Commonly line 71, for "closeable" read closable column 2, line 5, for "assemblied" read assembled column 3, lines 13 and 14 strike out "having the same form as the polygonal form of the body of the container. When folded" and insert instead in its inserted position, the body flaps 13 are folded inwardly along fold lines 21 and down- Signed and sealed this 12th day of September 1967.

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWIDER EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

